Heroin's Child: A shocking image of a lost innocence

A COMATOSE heroin addict sprawls in a school doorway with a needle by his side - as his toddler daughter cuddles him in a pitiful bid to stay warm. Just 10ft away, the man's six month-old baby daughter cries hysterically with no cover on her pram. The shocking pictures illustrate the grim reality behind damning statistics that show 120,000 children are living with addict parents.
Children's charities last night described the images as "appalling and frightening" And Justice Minister Kenny MacAskill said: "This shows the extent of the problem that drugs cause in our communities. When a wee toddler is discovered in circumstances like that, it is just so shocking.
"It really does highlight the tragedy and misery that drugs like heroin can bring." The father was found by a businessman alerted by the baby's crying. He said the toddler - dressed in pink tracksuit bottoms, pink and white trainers and a white T-shirt - was sound asleep but the baby looked distressed. The father's shirt sleeves were rolled up to reveal heavilytattooed arms. Around him lay the paraphernalia of drugs - discarded needles and a soup spoon for cooking heroin.
On the left of the picture, on the school step, a syringe and empty wrapper are clearly visible.
We are not naming the man because to do so would identify the vulnerable toddler and baby girl still in his care. But he remains the girls' legal guardian and lives with them and his wife in a house in Clackmannanshire. He is on a fast-track rehabilitation programme for heroin abusers and receives prescription methadone. The 39-year-old has a long history of drug abuse and was jailed for five years in 1994 for a serious sex assault. He claims the "drug works" were not his but admitted he had been drinking heavily with friends who were injecting heroin. On the day, he had appeared in court on another matter. He said: "I was told my dad was going to hospital and I wanted to take the children because my father loves them.
"I went to the Spar and got a half bottle and I also had a half bottle of vodka in the house which I had had a few out of. Me and the older child sat on the grass then I think I crashed out. I'm sorry for what has happened."
The businessman who took the photos on his mobile phone said: "He was gone. He had been that way so long that the girl was also asleep cuddled into him and the baby in the pram was crying her lungs out. He was dead to the world in broad daylight with two vulnerable children in his care. There is a busy road just a few steps away. It beggars belief that this idiot could still be responsible for these girls. The school where he was found is a notorious shooting-up location for addicts. There are new needles appearing there all the time."
Children's charity leaders described the case as "extreme" but said similar scenes were frequent behind closed doors across Scotland. Tom Roberts, head of public affairs at Children 1st, said: "It does paint a graphic picture of Scotland in 2007. "It is an appalling and frightening image. Services for addicts need to identify where children may live with someone misusing substances and ensure plans are put in place to protect them. We know with the right support, parents can overcome their addiction and maintain relationships with their children. However, we also know that support services are over-stretched and not always available when needed."
Last week chief medical officer Harry Burns revealed at least 120,000 children in Scotland live in homes blighted by drug and alcohol abuse. He warned: "Services are unable to prevent severe harm to many children. The Aberlour charity believes the real number of exposed children could be as high as 160,000. That is more than one in 10 children in Scotland, or three pupils in every class of 30. Aberlour said: "Parental substance use can affect children in many ways. The stigma can lead to isolation and susceptibility to bullying. Children may fear the family being split up by social services and may try to protect it by becoming withdrawn socially and conceal the harm they are experiencing."
Roberts said: "Many children in these situations assume a role as carer to their parents and siblings. Of the 2288 children on the child protection register in Scotland in March 2006, 45 per cent of these were categorised as having been neglected. We remain concerned that alcohol or drug misuse has pervaded Scottish culture and that this acts as a barrier to real change. Helping parents to stop misusing drugs or alcohol is the best solution for children, the best solution for communities and the best solution for individuals themselves."
It is not only the children left in the street as their parents lie comatose who are at risk. Children left in bedrooms as their parents lie unconscious through drink downstairs are in as much danger. But sometimes it can be hard to find help. A report by Children 1st stated: "People often have to wait weeks or even months to get the help that they need. This is especially regrettable given that pregnancy or parenthood can often be the trigger to encourage someone to end their drug or alcohol misuse." In the Central Scotland case, both girls are still at home with their father. This may appear to be a mistake by social services but they could also be at risk if put into public care. The report states: "The reality of our public care system is that it fails many of our young people, with outcomes such as low educational attainment, increased risk of drug use, mental illness, homelessness and offending, and a lack of identity and self-esteem. Before we can be confident of giving Scotland's most vulnerable children a safer, happier and more secure childhood, much more needs to be done to address the failings of our public care system."
Shown the pictures, Tory justice spokesman Bill Aitken said: "What an indictment of the society in which we live. These photographs are truly heart-rending." Labour justice spokeswoman Pauline McNeill said: "Sadly, there are cases like this and it will be shocking for people to read. We need more childcentred policies in government, we cannot tolerate this type of behaviour."
Clackmannanshire Council, who deal with the family, said: "Emergency duty social workers were involved in this case as soon as it came to light Social workers from Clackmannanshire Council's Child Care Service continue to be involved to ensure the future safety of the children."
This highlights the misery that heroin can bring It paints a graphic picture..an appalling and frightening image'
Source: Sunday Mail Nov. 25 2007

'Health disaster' fear as pupils turn to cocaine

Drug dealers are targeting schools and a "worrying number" of youngsters are trying cocaine, an expert warned yesterday. As a result, the country is heading for a health care disaster, Prof John Henry, the UK's leading expert on illicit drug use, told The Daily Telegraph. He predicted a dramatic rise in heart attacks, strokes and neurological problems among young people. He spoke as a new report said that almost one in five secondary school pupils in England, some as young as 11, took illegal drugs last year.
The number of children aged 11-15 dabbling in drugs was contributing to an increase in the number of adults addicted to Class A drugs such as cocaine, with massive knock-on costs for the NHS. Hospital admissions linked to illegal drugs have tripled in five years.
The report was published by The Information Centre for Health and Social Care, a Government-funded body. The number of pupils who told researchers that they had used drugs in the previous month had fallen slightly over a five-year period. But the report said that the numbers who took cocaine or ecstasy in the past year have not dropped and represent four per cent -- or around 140,000 children.
Around 17 per cent of pupils took some kind of illegal drug, rising to 29 per cent among 15-year-olds. Nearly one in five at secondary school were offered Class A drugs such as ecstasy, LSD, heroin, cocaine, crack, magic mushrooms, and amphetamines.
The report, which also looked at adult drug-taking in England and Wales, found that the number of cannabis users was down, from 10 per cent to eight per cent, but cocaine was the second most common drug.
Those taking Class A drugs rose in the past eight years from 2.7 per cent to 3.4 per cent, about 1.4 million adults, mainly due to an increase in cocaine use. Prof Susan Paterson, a toxicologist at Imperial College, London, who works with coroners on heroin deaths in the capital, said: "Ten years ago we hardly saw cocaine. Now it is commonplace."
Prof Henry said: "If dealers can find a new audience they will go for it. It is very brutal, very aggressive. "If you have a large number of people trying cocaine, you will have more people addicted." Cocaine usage had peaked in the US but was still on the rise here "which means the worst is yet to come, we're going to see more severe addiction, more strokes and heart attacks in young people, and more of the other complications linked to its usage".
There were 171 deaths from cocaine in 2005, up from 19 in 1996, but the professor said the figure was a gross underestimate because many cocaine users died of heart attacks and strokes. Prof Henry said: "We did research into people with chest pain and we found that about 30 per cent of people coming into hospital under 40 had taken cocaine." Cocaine use has been boosted because it has become more socially acceptable and the supply is more plentiful. A gram wrap costs as little as £45 and experts fear its use will soar until it reaches a peak, as it did in the 1990s in the US, where there are now 25 million users and two million addicts. According to the report, three per cent of pupils who said they had taken drugs in the past month were just 11 or 12 years old.
In 2006, 17 per cent of boys had taken drugs in the past year and 10 per cent in the past month. The figures for girls were 16 per cent and eight per cent respectively. Meanwhile, the numbers of adults in hospital where drug use is a factor has risen nearly threefold in 10 years to 38,364, while drug treatment centres are overwhelmed, with 181,390 drug users visiting them last year - up 13 per cent in 12 months. Some 8,200 pupils in 290 schools completed questionnaires last autumn for the survey.
Source: Daily Telegraph April 2007

Hyperactivity in young linked to smoking during pregnancy

Children whose mothers smoked during their pregnancy are up to nine times more likely to develop attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, scientists say. US researchers found smoking acts as a trigger for the disorder when children are already genetically predisposed to ADHD.

The dangers of smoking during pregnancy are well documented. But the links between smoking and ADHD have not been proven until now. Symptoms of the disorder usually start early in a child's life. In the US the most recent study indicated that around 3.3% of children under 10 have ADHD and levels are believed to be similar here. The researchers found no relationships between alcohol during pregnancy and ADHD. The scientists contacted just over 5,000 families with twin children aged seven to 18 in Missouri. The parents were asked to complete questionnaires on their children's behaviour and their habits during pregnancy. More than 24% reported smoking during pregnancy, of whom more than 75% smoked during the entire pregnancy.
A significantly increased risk of ADHD was found in those who smoked. "The average number of ADHD symptoms was significantly higher in the offspring who were exposed to prenatal smoking," the study said. Rosalind Neuman, one of the authors, said: "When genetic factors are combined with prenatal cigarette smoke exposure, the ADHD risk rises very significantly."
John Krystal, editor of Biological Psychiatry in which the research will be published in June, added: "These data highlight a new risk of maternal smoking, increasing the risk for ADHD in their children. ADHD, in turn, increases the risk for substance abuse. Thus, it appears in utero exposure to nicotine may help to perpetuate a cycle across generations that links addiction and behavioural problems."
A separate study, published last night, reveals that smoking cannabis while pregnant affects the brain development of unborn babies. Scientists believe taking the drug could restrict naturally occurring compounds in the embryonic brain which join up nerves and promote foetal growth.
The research centres on compounds in the body called endocannabinoids. These act in the same way as cannabis by attaching to receptors found on the surface of nerve cells in the brain. If cannabis is smoked at the same time as these molecules are released, there can be a battle for the receptors. This can disrupt the network of nerves and their formation.
Researchers in Scotland, the US and Hungary have been involved in the year-long study, led by the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden. Anne Rajnicek, lecturer at Aberdeen University's institute of medical sciences, said: "Although we did not test marijuana-derived compounds directly, our data suggest marijuana use during pregnancy could affect development of the foetal brain."
Source: The Guardian Friday May 25, 2007

Raise age limit for buying alcohol to 21 and cut death toll

ALCOHOL sales should be restricted to over-21s, according to a new report that reveals that the drug is killing tens of thousands of teenagers and young adults in the developed world.
One in four deaths of people aged 15 to 29 in the developed world is down to drink - a total of 82,000 fatalities a year.
Males accounted for 70,000 of those deaths, meaning alcohol is responsible for a third of deaths among young men in the developing world, the Adolescent Health Study, published by the Lancet, revealed.
The figure is made up of mainly accidents when the victims are inebriated, such as swimmers drowning and drink-driving deaths.
At the launch of the study in London yesterday, doctors called for the legal age for buying alcohol to be raised to 21.
Dr Russell Viner, a paediatrician at University College London, said Britain had only just woken up to the alcohol problem, which was most prevalent in northern Europe, Australia and New Zealand.
He said: "We are recognising that binge drinking in young people is a serious problem. We thought it was a lot of fun, but we now realise that, particularly amongst young people, not drinking much all week and splurging at the weekend is harmful."
He said the solution was to raise the legal limit for buying alcohol to that in the United States, where the number of young people drinking has been falling for 20 years.
He went on: "I would like to see a European model where most young people drink with their family at a younger age, learning to drink in a social context. But it would be difficult to bolt this on to established Anglo-Saxon practice, so the best is probably what Americans do. We need a rethink of ages we license young people to buy various products."
The report, a collection of several studies from around the world, claims brain development continues through adolescence and can be placed at risk by the use of alcohol.
It claims that zero-tolerance approaches to alcohol are ineffective, and that harm-reduction strategies, such as random breath-testing and early intervention from GPs advising youngsters on the risks of alcohol consumption, can be more effective.
The study says that, partly as a result of alcohol misuse, there is a danger of a substantial drop in life expectancy, with chronic diseases, such as diabetes and early signs of cardiovascular disease, appearing in teenagers and young adults.
Professor Glenn Bowes, the head of the paediatric department at the University of Melbourne in Australia, said alcohol misuse was likely to cause further problems later in life.
Citing the statistic that 98 per cent of adult drinkers began drinking in their adolescence, he said: "Adults who have alcohol-related health issues often exhibit behaviour patterns that began in their teenage years.
"Preventive work needs to be done at the stage where the behaviour starts," he added.
"The education in school is important, but we really have to look at what the health system is doing. Doctors need to be shown how to talk to adolescents, so that when they come in to a GP's surgery with a cold, for example, the doctor can use it as an opportunity to ask them about their lifestyle and advise them on the health risks
Source Scotsman.com 27 March 2007

Scandal of Scots dope factories

DETECTIVES are shutting down at least one cannabis factory a week in their battle to contain an illegal industry created by reclassification of the drug, one of Scotland's leading police officers revealed last night.
Graeme Pearson, director general of the Scottish Drug Enforcement Agency (SDEA), said cannabis factory raids north of the Border had gone from none to 66 in the space of 12 months.
In comments that will be seen as critical of senior politicians who allowed cannabis to be "downgraded" from Class B to Class C, Pearson says organised crime saw a business opportunity and quickly moved in.
Pearson said Scotland's new generation of "industrial-sized" cannabis producers could be worth more than £7m - equivalent to eight million "spliffs".
The SDEA chief spoke out after the government announced cannabis could be returned to Class B. That prompted numerous admissions north and south of the Border from politicians who admitted smoking the drug as students.
But Pearson warned that society faced much more severe problems as a result of cannabis use, including the increased strength of the drug. He also revealed that many people were working in the factories in conditions similar to "slavery".
The move to reclassify cannabis was made in 2004 by the-then Home Secretary David Blunkett. It came despite fierce opposition from many experts who claimed it gave out the wrong message.
Pearson said: "It is not surprising that the public misunderstood the reclassification message. They began to think cannabis was OK and young people took that message to mean that it cannot be too bad to use and was no big deal.
"As a result, we have gone from zero cultivation of industrial-sized cannabis factories in Scotland a year ago, to 66 today."
It is estimated that around 60% of cannabis smoked in Britain these days is home-produced, compared with just 11% a decade ago. The UK trade is run by the 'Viet-Ching', an amalgamation of Vietnamese gangsters working alongside Chinese counterparts, the Triads.
Pearson said: "I am obviously concerned about cannabis and its links to organised crime."
He added: "Each factory can house up to 1,000 plants, each capable of producing £100,000-worth of cannabis, making production in Scotland alone worth at least £7m a year."
Across the country, factories have been built in houses, flats, industrial units and farms. And just as worrying as the soaring production rates is the fact that the cannabis is today around seven times stronger than the era when many top politicians were smoking it.
Shadow Home Secretary David Davis said his party had long called for the reclassification of the drug, adding that the evidence "shows all too clearly the real damage this drug can do to people, especially young people".
Margaret Smith, the Scottish Lib Dem justice spokeswoman, said the drug's classification needs to be kept under review. She said: "I find these facts and figures very worrying and cannabis is a drug we need to take seriously. We should not underestimate its potential for harm."
The anti-drugs campaigner Maxie Richards said it was a mistake to have reclassified cannabis. She said: "The government never listened to us when we warned about the damage the reclassification would do. I see beautiful young people whose lives have been destroyed by cannabis. David Blunkett should be called to account for what he did."
A Scottish Executive spokesman said they remained vigilant about the drug's dangers.
Source: www.Scotsman.com Sunday 22nd July 2007

Medicines watchdog cracks down on 'legal high' pills

Pills offering "legal highs" were today declared illegal by the UK medicines regulator because they contain a dangerous anti-worming agent.
Until now, drugs containing Benzylpiperazine (BZP) have been marketed in Britain as legal alternatives to ecstasy, with products including Pep Twisted, Pep Stoned, Legal E, Nemesis, The Good Stuff and Euphoria.
Many are easily available in "headshops" and over the internet, despite being banned in the US and many other countries.
However, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) said vendors of the drugs could face prosecution and ruled that their promotion must be stopped immediately.
MHRA research found BZP can came cause the same high as amphetamines, but also induce side-effects including vomiting, abdominal pain, seizures and abnormal heart rhythms. In extreme cases, it can cause death.
The MHRA said the active ingredient in BZP is piperazine, which is used as an anti-worming agent to tackle parasites in cattle.
"Producers and sellers must now stop marketing all products containing benzylpiperazine and piperazine blend in the UK with immediate effect, and must cancel all advertising and promotion including internet promotion and sales," Danny Lee-Frost, an MHRA spokesman, said.
"People should not take these pills, as there are considerable health risks."
He said piperazine-based products were classified as medicinal and must only be sold under licence in a pharmacy. However, BZP pills are unlicensed and there is there no safeguard over the quality or safety of the drug.
The widespread sale of piperzines in the UK was exposed by the Guardian in 2005. One pill, Twisted, was marketed as offering a "loved-up feeling with a trippy edge", while another, Stoned, was described as "mild, mellow and giggly".
Source:Tuesday March 20, 2007 Guardian Unlimited